What is meant by “financial crime”?
Several types of crime are bundled together under the heading of financial crime. The following is a brief explanation of each of the ones we need to be concerned about making sure that we are complying with our obligations under law and regulation.
Money laundering – To prevent our firm from being used to launder monies under the 5th AML Directive. This is where people try to get monies to go through a professional firm and then receive what is known as “clean” money from a firm at the end of a case. Say a criminal brought a claim and paid for their hire car vehicle in cash while their car was off the road. In a successful claim, those monies would be refunded to the person at the end and the criminal would have nice clean money paid to them from a solicitors bank account.
UK Sanctions Law – This prevents businesses from doing business with people who are under a sanction by the Government (worldwide) as this is not allowed. The Government has a sanctions list which includes “politically exposed persons” such as those involved in Government/politics (and their families) which we need to check before acting for you or paying out monies. It is nothing to worry about and highly unlikely that you would be on the list. This involves a simple electronic check which we do ourselves and record on your file. You are not affected by this on your credit or any other report and we will not charge you for it.
This is a legal requirement for all companies.
Fraud / Theft – This can be bringing a false claim to gain monies such as when crashes are “staged” and those involved then bring a claim. This may be with the involvement of one or more parties to an accident (whether car or in a workplace). This would also include if someone exaggerated their injuries or damage. Any monies that are obtained by way of theft or fraudulent behaviour, including tax evasion, are covered by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and/or the Fraud Act 2006.
Terrorism – We have a legal duty under the Terrorism Act 2000 to report anything that suspect relates to terrorist activity and/or financing.
Any suspicions that anyone in the firm has in relation to the financial crime are reported internally and a report may be made to the National Crime Agency.
Please raise any questions you have on any of the above with your case handler in the first instance or email riskandcomplianceteam@carpentersgroup.co.uk
